First Place Tower

skyscraper
international-style
OK
Tulsa

About the First Place Tower in Tulsa
Architect and team
Architectural style
Spaces and uses
Structure and materials

The First Place Tower is an International Style skyscraper designed by Murray Jones Murray, with Robert Lawton Jones as lead architect, and built between 1970 and 1973 in Tulsa, OK.

First Place Tower is not the only name you might know this building by though. The building is, or has also been known as First National Bank Tower.

Its precise street address is 15 East Fifth Street, Tulsa, OK. You can also find it on the map here.

The building underwent a major restoration between 2018 and 2019. The architect commissioned to undertake this restoration was Cyntergy Engineering.

Building's timeline

Construction begins

1970

Construction completed

1973

Restoration

2019

years ago

2025

2018 to 2019 - An adjacent building was constructed, connected to the second floor of the First Place Tower via a skybridge. This structure features two underground levels and five above-ground floors, with retail space on the ground level and a total of 500 parking spaces. The architect in charge was Cyntergy Engineering.

Architect and team

Murray Jones Murray, with Robert Lawton Jones as the lead architect, was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

Architectural Style

The First Place Tower can be categorized as an International Style building.

The international style originated in Europe in the early 20th century, and made its way to the US a couple of decades later when the rise of the Nazi regime forced figures such as Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, or Mies van der Rohe to flee Europe.

The International Style emerged as a response to the prevailing historicism and ornate architecture styles of the late 19th century, which according to a younger generation of architects didn't represent the new materials and construction techniques that were on the rise at the time.

Architecture in the early 20th century US was marked by the adoption of steel structures, modern construction techniques, and the rise of the skyscraper. As it turns out, this combination of circumstances created the perfect ecosystem for the International Style to flourish, becoming the to-go style for skyscraper designs during the mid-20th century, when American cities were growing fast.

The International Style’s legacy can not only be found in numerous iconic buildings across all major American cities, but also incorporated in contemporary architecture, which still puts a big emphasis on functionality and minimalism.

Spaces & Uses

The First Place Tower reaches an architectural height of 515ft (157m). It has a total of 40 floors, served by 15 elevators, which combined offer a total of 621,325 sqf (57,723m²) of usable space.

In regards to parking space, the building has a total of 500 spots available, which roughly equals 13 spots per floor (above ground), or one parking spot per every 1,238 sqf (115m²) of usable space.

Ever since opening its doors to the public in 1973, the First Place Tower has mainly been used as Commercial space.

In addition to office spaces, the First Place Tower features a spacious lobby, a fitness center, a café with catering services, and an underground passageway that connects to the Main Street parking garage, complementing the parking capacity provided by the new adjacent building.

Materials & Structure

The vertical elements of the concrete's structure, which transmit all loads vertically until the foudnations, are made out of concrete, whreas the horizontal elements that make up each floor are made out of steel and concrete.

The facade in this case is non-load bearing, which means that it does not serve as a structural element, and therefore the architects had total freedom to work on its design without worrying about the support of the building.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features a continuous grid of dark-tinted glass windows framed by almost white precast concrete panels.

The concrete panels protrude more on the vertical sides, creating a sort of "fins", and emphasizing the building's verticality.

The base of the building is clad in brown polished granite.

Sources

en.wikipedia.org
web.archive.org
tulsaarchitecture.org
flickr.com
voicesofoklahoma.com
na.traxon-ecue.com
view.ceros.com
images4.loopnet.com